the thing that was so extremely unique about Half-Life 1 and 2 is that there were no cutscenes, you were never pulled out of your characters body for him to do something that "you" didn't do, you play as the character all the way through and in a sense you were Freeman.
This game completely ruins what made the Half-Life games so unique and shits on it with a Call of Duty rebrand using the Half-Life name because of the huge array of assets and the market for a new Half-Life game. It's scummy and shitty, even buying it as a meme is giving money to the developers.
HOWEVER, this is one of very few chances to show valve that people still hold a large interest in Half-Life related products, throwing your money at it makes for income, and money is what Valve loves most. So make what you want of it.